Mark: I have a question from one of our listeners who I thought was very beautiful, and I thought would be a great question for you. And he writes, Your Excellency, we are at a point in this pontificate where he feels that the credibility of the papacy is very much attacked. Most Catholics are not sure what they are supposed to believe, and the Pope’s speeches and writings, and because of the lack of true catechesis and teaching over the last 50 years, there is a serious lack of supernatural faith in most of the clergy, and therefore, the laity is not inspired. I believe the FSSP at our parish offers a small dose of sanity each week at Mass that we can’t get anywhere else. There is peace in our hearts as we go to Mass and spend those few hours with Christ and our fellow parishioners; the rest of the week is filled with confusion, uncertainty, dismay, and disarray that the father of lies pours upon us. He says, I’m not sure I have a specific question for the good Bishop, but are there any words of encouragement or hope that he could offer that might be helpful to the faithful in these times This comes from DREW. Thank you.
Bishop Athanasius Schneider: Yes, they have to always have a supernatural view, a vision, because the church is not a human organization. The church is a divine human organization. So ultimately, the church is in the hands of Christ, not in the hands of the Pope; it is in the hands of Christ. The Pope is not the successor of Christ, please. The Pope is only the Vicar of Christ, so not the successor. Thanks be to God. He is only the vicar and so and God permits this. So we have to simply say, oh my lord, you permit it that I’m living in such a confused time when even the Pope is spreading ambiguities and and undermining some truth, it is difficult the supreme shepherd or my bishop or priest, and therefore, if you permitted this, this has a meaning for me, because God is wise, and God permits the evils only to draw from the evils, a greater good.
What is the greater good for me if I am strengthened in my faith? Simply say, I will keep the same faith with which I know from the Catechism, from the life of the saints. I have the Eucharist, our Lord is the living Lord there in the tabernacle, in the holy host. He is there. He is living. He is with all his powerful majesty. There I will go to him and and so I have all, and I will pray for the Pope and for the other shepherds that they may regain the fourth and the strength, or that God will again send us courageous apostolic men to the chair of Peter and on the other Episcopal chairs and the priesthood. And he will do this because it is his church. It’s not our church, and this is a time of trials for me, so I accept this with humility, and the Lord will reward me in eternity with more more rewards that because I lived in such a difficult time, God is so good, he will give us eternal rewards only because we are we have passed through a very difficult time in the church and and no prayer which we are doing is in vain. So we have to pray for a new pope, for new bishops, and offer our sacrifices in a spirit of penance, of trust. So this is the only meaning. And the other way, we have not to forget that even in the hierarchy, the parable of the field, our Lord said the church is the field with wheat. And also among the wheat is the chef.
How do you say the debate plan, Chef, so and this, this field of wheat and chaff. It. It is also applied to the hierarchy. Also in the hierarchy are wheat and chaff among the bishops, among the priests, and even God. And to the papacy also, it is not spared, of course, this and so in some cases God permits these. So we had Thanks be to God. In the history of the church, the majority, overwhelming majority of the popes were doing good, their ministry and their saints, or courageous Popes. But sometimes not. And this is then it was, the parable of wheat and chaff, and the same in the Episcopacy, among the bishops, among the Cardinals, among the priesthood, and among the faithful. So, but the field is the field of the Lord, and there is also wheat. And so we have to trust and pray. And the church is invincible. Even, I think this truth which our Lord proclaims, that the gates of hell will not prevail against the church. This. This is for us, a trial. We have to believe in these truths, notwithstanding this confusion which are now coming from the center, the visible center of the church in Rome. It is temporary. It’s only a question of time, a temporary confusion. It will again. Rome will again shine brightly.
Mark: It was beautiful. That was good. I don’t know about you, Jason, but I’m ready to run through a brick wall.